Harris Academy for boys on Peckham Rye approved

[Dr De Soto]

What was the result of the Southwark Council meeting last night, where they were discussing the plans for the Harris Academy on Peckham Rye? Did they take a decision?

[TJMP]

The application was passed unanimously after more than three and a half hours deliberation.

Tessa Jowell (Office)

[Dr De Soto]

So just to clarify, does this mean it's now been formally agreed that there will be a school for 950 boys, to be built on the site of the former school on Friern Rd/Peckham Rye? If so, when is it due to be built/open?

This is HUGE news for East Dulwich. Not necessarily good news, but far more important than which wine bar is going to be opening on Lordship Lane next month.

[James]

Oh God. Will the last person to leave East Dulwich please turn out the lights...

[TJMP]

The new building is due to open in September 2010. The school will be for 750 boys aged 11-16 and a mixed sixth form of 200.

The planning permission granted was:

Demolition of the former London Board school on Peckham Rye, buildings on Friern Road and associated structures and the erection of a four storey building (maximum height 18.5m with plant rising to 19.5m) including sports hall for a 950 pupil (including sixth form) academy (Class D1), provision of 30 car parking spaces and 107 cycle parking spaces, alterations to and erection of boundary walls and fences, alterations to existing highway and the creation of new vehicle and pedestrian accesses including provision of servicing and parking access off Peckham Rye, and emergency fire access off Friern Road, and other incidental and enabling works.

[phillyboy]

I'm confused - is there a loacl Girls school academy that this is linked to?

[Muttley]

I was at the meeting. At times it got quite heated and emotional (at least, among the members of the public).

The whole case seems to be founded on the fact that, in order to be viable, there has to be a five class intake, i.e. 150 per year group. This seems to be the conventional wisdom for schools these days. Personally I find it hard to believe that a school can't offer a great curriculum with just a four class intake, which would have brought the numbers down to under 800. I'd happily trade a more limited curriculum for more space. If you look at the building plan, there is almost NO outdoor space for the boys to play during breaks.

The second fundamental driver for the 950 total was that the school needs a sixth form to provide mentors for younger pupils. I can see the argument for this, though where Year 7s will get to see these sixth formers (other than along crammed corridors) is unclear.

It was reported that Tessa Jowell's own survey had revealed a majority of locals in favour of the school. I'm extremely cynical about this. The only fair way to assess local opinion would have been to hold a representative survey, asking specifically if people were in favour of a school for 950 (with pictures so that they could see what it will be like). I'm not aware of such a survey. Of course East Dulwich parents are in favour of a new school, but I suspect most people will be shocked when they discover the details.

Final point of note: it was clear from the meeting that there will be NO use of Peckham Rye for sport by the school (except perhaps for the odd special case). Boys will be mini-bused to other sports venues, including South Bank University (is that Burbage Road?) and the velodrome. The latter will offer 'exciting' opportunities for bike activities, apparently.

I don't think we've heard the end of this.

Edited to answer Phillyboy's question: This Academy will be linked to the Girls Academy on the other side of Peckham Rye. The sixth form will be joint, so some girls will occasionally go to the boys' site for certain subjects and vice versa.

[Keef]

Maybe they could do a deal with Aske's for use of their playing fields in Nunhead/Brockley (I am assuming Aske's haven't flogged them since I was there 12 years ag). They have masses of space, and it's not always in use by any stretch.

[Ted Max]

Thanks, Muttley.

SBU is indeed on Burbage Road - more towards the Gallery Road end, rather than Herne Hill end.

[cmacki]

Terrible decision.

Like all single sex schools it instigates or worse, reinforces the concept of separation in society form a young age. This is the foundation on which religious, racial, cultural and ethnic prejudice is built.

Appalling, appalling appalling.

[Keef]

Steady on, a lot of people went to single sex schools, and we don't all have issues!

I don't think this place sounds great though, but more for Muttley's reasons!

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

As an old fart, I think it's rather sad that a fine building will be lost.

Re the playing fields, St Olave's in the OKR bus their pupils to the Dulwich Park Rd grounds and seems to work from them. That at least is a better option than my daughter's school which doesn't set much store by sports and apart from hiring Battersea Park athletics track for their once-yearly shindig, do bugger all.

[cmacki]

Yes, agreed. I came on a bit strong, I'll change my statement to:

"Like many single sex schools it instigates or worse, reinforces the concept of separation in society form a young age. This is part of the foundation on which religious, racial, cultural and ethnic prejudice is built."

...still a pretty bad decision, in my opinion.

[James]

I think so too. What's more the Government KNOW that smaller schools are much more effective, especially for children from deprived backgrounds. Sounds like a big whitewash to me. Like the Academy concept in general, a way of contracting out failure.

"Hello Lord Harris, how do you do? Show me the money and do what you like, then it's not our responsibility if the school is crap. There you go, take the cash and run! Single-sex? Religious? Hairdressing Academy? Have it your way! Toodle pip."

[taper]

950 with sixth form isn't a particularly big school. Mine was twice that size. Although I'm fairly ambivalent about this issue, the area is crying out for secondary school places; so it's odd the decision has attracted so much animus. Is there something else behind the anti campaign? The NUT's loathing of academies, nimbyism? The EDGE campaign had some rather odd scare stories about creationism (wilful misinformation about Harris academies here). The "local control" dogma was trotted out too as well as misinformation about what it entails to be a specilaist college. And what's all the cr@p about carpet!? Latterly, the space issue has taken centre stage; something that with careful management won't be a problem. I suggest people file this one under "good news" or "not the worst thing that's likely to happen this week"

[Moos]

Taper, I don't think anyone has an issue with a large school as such. Those that are against it say that the school, though desperately needed, is too large for the site that it's on.

[cmacki]

What I'm saying is if you are going to open a school do it the right way. I'm against single sex schools for obvious reasons (no offence to anyone who has been to one, many of friends have) and I think James has a point as well.

However lets step back a moment.

The first I heard of this was through a questionnaire about the proposal. If you canvas people about opening a school the instant reaction is to say 'yeah, that's a great idea' after all on the face of it opening a school is miles better than opening another Tesco's and all in all schools are beneficial to the local community. So it was obviously going to get luke warm/hot reaction consequently it was obvious that the proposal would go ahead.

I wish the questionnaire would have explored more relevant questions such as 'should it be a single sex school?'

[bawdy-nan]

There's also the question of whether the Harris Academies are best placed to deliver education. The Academy at Peckham is on eth list of schools threatened with being turned into academies because they are underperforming.

[MitchK]

Is this a school for toffs or oiks?

[Townleygreen]

I would hope it would be a school for ED - in other words, mostly (but far from entirely) middle class boys. It might well have a fairly small catchment area, confined to ED effectively - I believe Charter's CA is quite limited, so I imagine this one could be too. But it needs local ED boys and their parents to apply to go there, to make this so, obviously.

[taper]

Kingsdale's on the same list, but people on here recognise it's improving year on year. Peckham Academy ditto, in the hardest imaginable circumstances. I think Harris are to be commended for their vision for state secondary education in this area. So what lies beneath the ferocity of this campaign? I find it genuinely puzzling. Are people in the anti camp those who are likely to send their kids to the school?

[TJ]

Any school is better than no school and if the site wasnt a school , it would have been flats which would have caused even more outrage...

Lets give the school some local support and lets see what they can do.

Lets hope we are pleasantly surprised. Its a done deal now - lets get on with it.

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

Cmacki, I truly do not understand your antipathy towards single-sex schools. I have a teenage daughter who goes to a single sex school. It's been well documented that girls thrive in such establishments which is one of the major reasons I chose it. What's so bad about them?

Taper, the Peckham Academy was a crap school before Harris took over. I hugely admired the new headmaster (now gone) and did look at the school, but rightly or wrongly, was put off by the gobbets of spit all over the place, plus the above reasons.

[kilmore]

The reason why it is a boys' school is because the governors of the old Waverley voted against the co-ed proposal a few years ago, and there's already an overwhelming number of girls' places in the area. 5 forms of entry is small by most standards and almost the minimum necessary to generate enough (roll driven) budget to fund teachers for a broad curriculum. The sixth form is really the issue - it will take years before it's established, and if the pressures on the site are as bad as people say, student will vote with their feet at 16 and it will remain at 750 or thereabouts. If it's a big success, then the site issues will pale into insignificance because they want to be there. In any case, the sixth form is only in the building half the time because of the sharing with the girls and the way teaching is done these days. If there are real complaints from neighbours about behaviour, being a small school it won't be hard to identify them. The thing about starting from scratch is that the ethos is established from the beginning and is then established as the norm for the next year group when they arrive- not the same as trying to turn round an existing school, that's a whole lot harder.

[Muttley]

kilmore Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> In any case, the sixth form is

> only in the building half the time because of the

> sharing with the girls and the way teaching is

> done these days.

Are you sure about this? As I understand it (from what was said at the meeting last night), while boys will do some stuff at the girls' site, girls will also be doing stuff on the boys site, so at any time there will be 950 based on the site, but not all of them boys.

5 forms is indeed small by modern standards, but then again, so is the size of the site (outside the inner city, it would be hard to find a school site with less outside space). The Harris people seem convinced that their model will work, and let's hope they really know what they're talking about. But it does seem that this whole thing is quite a gamble.